Effective utilization of gravity during arm downswing in keystrokes by expert pianists

Furuya, Shinichi; Osu, Rieko; Kinoshita, Hiroshi

doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2009.08.024

Cited by 55 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…The results of one of the studies of Papaxanthis et al (2003), in which electromyography was measured, showed that the CNS allows gravitational force to replace muscular force when the movement speed is low. A similar use of gravity has been found in a study of Furuya, Osu, and Kinoshita (2009), where gravity replaced triceps force of expert pianists during arm downswing in keystrokes. Although most of these studies examined pointing movements, similar results may be expected for grasping movements, especially if grasping movements are considered as pointing with multiple fingers (Smeets & Brenner, 1999, 2001.…”

supporting

confidence: 57%

Gravity Affects the Vertical Curvature in Human Grasping Movements

Verheij

Brenner

Smeets

2013

Journal of Motor Behavior

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When humans make grasping movements their digits' paths are curved vertically. In a previous study the authors found that this curvature is largely caused by the local constraints at the start and end of the movement. Here the authors examined the contribution of gravity to the part of the curvature that was not explained by the local constraints. Subjects had to grasp a tealight (small cylinder) while sitting on a chair. The authors could rotate the whole setup, including the subject, relative to gravity, whereby the positions of the starting point and of the tealight relative to the subject did not change. They found differences between the paths that are consistent with a direct effect of gravity pulling the arm downward.

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supporting

confidence: 57%

Gravity Affects the Vertical Curvature in Human Grasping Movements

Verheij

Brenner

Smeets

2013

Journal of Motor Behavior

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“…The elbow joint rotates for extension by either contracting the extensor muscle or relaxing the anti-gravity flexor muscle to utilize gravity. Indeed, the recording of arm muscular activity demonstrated that production of the elbow extension muscular torque during the arm descent in piano keystrokes was associated with an increase in extensor muscular activity for novice players, and with a decrease in flexor muscular activity for expert piano players, respectively (Furuya et al, 2009). This finding indicates distinct solutions to the muscular redundancy problem depending on levels of proficiency of pianists so that the long-term piano training can achieve physiological efficiency by utilizing gravity during the piano keystroke.…”

Section: Reorganization Of Redundant Multi-joint Arm Movements In Piamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In order to increase the velocity of elbow rotation during the hand downswing for a louder tone production, the experts elicited larger inter-segmental dynamics by increasing the amount of the shoulder joint deceleration, whereas the novices simply generated lager elbow muscular torque (Furuya and Kinoshita, 2007, 2008a). The loudness increase was also associated with a decrease in the anti-gravity activity of the elbow flexor and increase in the activity of the elbow extensor for the expert pianists and novice players, respectively (Furuya et al, 2009). These findings suggest effects of extensive long-term piano training on the movement organization and muscular coordination responsible for loudness control, yielding larger reliance on non-muscular forces.…”

Section: Manipulation Of Elements Of Musicmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flexibility of movement organization in piano performance

Furuya

Altenmüller

2013

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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Piano performance involves a large repertoire of highly skilled movements. The acquisition of these exceptional skills despite innate neural and biomechanical constraints requires a sophisticated interaction between plasticity of the neural system and organization of a redundant number of degrees of freedom (DOF) in the motor system. Neuroplasticity subserving virtuosity of pianists has been documented in neuroimaging studies investigating effects of long-term piano training on structure and function of the cortical and subcortical regions. By contrast, recent behavioral studies have advanced the understanding of neuromuscular strategies and biomechanical principles behind the movement organization that enables skilled piano performance. Here we review the motor control and biomechanics literature, introducing the importance of describing motor behaviors not only for understanding mechanisms responsible for skillful motor actions in piano playing, but also for advancing diagnosis and rehabilitation of movement disorders caused by extensive piano practice.

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“…The latter touch involves a preparatory lifting of the arm, followed by a downswing before the finger-tip collides and depresses the key. In a series of biomechanical studies, we have recently examined kinematics, kinetics, and muscular activities of the upper-limb movements during the struck touch performed by expert pianists [7-9,12]. Results demonstrated that during downswing the pianists volitionally decelerated shoulder extension to generate the inter-segmental dynamics that accelerates elbow and wrist joint rotations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Control of multi-joint arm movements for the manipulation of touch in keystroke by expert pianists

et al. 2010

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BackgroundProduction of a variety of finger-key touches in the piano is essential for expressive musical performance. However, it remains unknown how expert pianists control multi-joint finger and arm movements for manipulating the touch. The present study investigated differences in kinematics and kinetics of the upper-limb movements while expert pianists were depressing a key with two different touches: pressed and struck. The former starts key-depression with the finger-tip contacting the key, whereas the latter involves preparatory arm-lift before striking the key. To determine the effect of individual muscular torque (MUS) as well as non-muscular torques on joint acceleration, we performed a series of inverse and forward dynamics computations.ResultsThe pressed touch showed smaller elbow extension velocity, and larger shoulder and finger flexion velocities during key-depression compared with the struck touch. The former touch also showed smaller elbow extension acceleration directly attributed to the shoulder MUS. In contrast, the shoulder flexion acceleration induced by elbow and wrist MUS was greater for the pressed touch than the struck touch. Towards the goal of producing the target finger-key contact dynamics, the pressed and struck touches effectively took advantage of the distal-to-proximal and proximal-to-distal inter-segmental dynamics, respectively. Furthermore, a psychoacoustic experiment confirmed that a tone elicited by the pressed touch was perceived softer than that by the struck touch.ConclusionThe present findings suggest that manipulation of tone timbre depends on control of inter-segmental dynamics in piano keystroke.

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Effective utilization of gravity during arm downswing in keystrokes by expert pianists

Cited by 55 publications

References 36 publications

Gravity Affects the Vertical Curvature in Human Grasping Movements

Gravity Affects the Vertical Curvature in Human Grasping Movements

Flexibility of movement organization in piano performance

Control of multi-joint arm movements for the manipulation of touch in keystroke by expert pianists

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